Organizers of two petition drives aim to pose the cannabis question to voters in the November 2020 election.

One group, the Sensible Florida political action committee, began soliciting donations last year and had raised nearly $426,000 as of Aug. 31, according to state records. Supporters include Trulieve, the state’s largest cannabis company, which contributed $23,000.

A second group, Make It Legal Florida, has raised more than $1 million from two of Florida’s medical marijuana providers. MM Enterprises USA, the Los Angeles-based operator of MedMen, contributed $649,500 to the Make It Legal campaign, according to state elections records. MedMen this summer opened a dispensary on Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach.

“Our amendment is very simple. It really builds off the 2016 medical marijuana amendment,” said Nick Hansen, MedMen’s director of governmental affairs in the Southeastern United States and head of the Make It Legal Florida committee. “We saw there was an overwhelming supermajority of adults who wanted access to cannabis.”

Florida voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016 by a wide margin. The measure needed 60 percent approval; it won 71 percent of the vote.

The two questions proposed for the 2020 ballot are generally similar. Both would allow any adult 21 or older to possess pot and to consume cannabis in private. Sensible Florida’s proposal would allow Floridians to grow weed at home, something not allowed by Make It Legal Florida’s proposal.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody already has challenged Sensible Florida’s proposed amendment. Saying the language is lengthy and “ambiguous,” she petitioned the state Supreme Court to block the ballot measure.

“There is no way 10 pages of the law can be summarized clearly in 75 words or less and would adequately convey to the voters what exactly they will be voting on,” Moody said in a statement.

In her public pronouncements, Moody didn’t criticize cannabis, just the form of Sensible Florida’s ballot question.

Tampa attorney Michael Minardi is head of Sensible Florida, and he said he anticipated a challenge.

“Our position is, bring it,” Minardi said. “We knew this day was going to come.”

Organizers hoping to get a question on the 2020 ballot must secure 766,000 signatures by Feb. 2. Minardi said he encourages marijuana advocates to sign petitions for both proposals.

“We’re both on our own tracks moving forward,” Minardi said. “We’re not against them at all.”

Pot has proven politically popular in Florida. In 2014, a medical marijuana amendment won nearly 58 percent of the vote, just short of the 60 percent threshold for ballot measures.

In 2016, support topped 70 percent. And in 2018, cannabis advocate Nikki Fried was voted Florida’s agriculture commissioner. She was the only Democrat to win a Cabinet race.

More than 266,000 Floridians had active cannabis cards as of Friday, according to Florida’ Office of Medical Marijuana Use.

Hansen said Florida’s medical marijuana industry would continue to exist even if full legalization were approved.

It’s unclear how recreational cannabis would be taxed. Florida marijuana patients pay no sales tax, but they must pay a doctor to write a recommendation. The visit typically costs $200.

And the state charges $75 for a medical marijuana ID card.

Many analysts predict Florida’s medical marijuana market could total $1 billion in annual revenue. If any adult is free to buy cannabis, sales could expand to $4 billion to $5 billion a year, Hansen said.

California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Washington are among the states that allow cannabis sales to anyone 21 and older.

The latest pot push is notable for who’s not involved: Orlando attorney John Morgan is absent from this battle. He spent millions of his personal fortune bankrolling the failed campaign in 2014 and the successful 2016 bid.

While Morgan isn’t involved in the 2020 proposal, he has made no secret of his desire for full legalization of marijuana. At a cannabis conference in Manalapan in 2017, Morgan said the marijuana sector can act as an economic engine in a time of labor uncertainty.

“What we worry about most in the 21st century is jobs, automation, robots,” Morgan said during the 2017 visit. “This is an industry that’s going to be a job creator.”

As evidence, Morgan pointed to Colorado, a state with a booming economy partly driven by full legalization of marijuana.

“Look at the real-estate values, look at the real-estate occupancy, look at the tax base, look at the jobs that are being created and will be created,” he said.

Morgan said he considers pot prohibition racist and hypocritical, especially in light of an epidemic of addiction to legally prescribed opioids.

“The war on drugs was a ruse and a failure and a disgrace,” Morgan said. “We were fighting the wrong war.”

This story has been written and syndicated across GateHouse Media Group's 22 Florida markets.